1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to removable clips with user interfaces. More particularly, the present invention relates to a clip that provides a user interface to an electronic computing device and is operable to selectively attach the device to an object.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of clips are provided today with portable electronic computing devices such as media players (e.g., music player or video player). The clips today typically serve only one function, which is to clip the device to various objects such as a person's clothing. As a result of such typical purposes of clips, clips usually only operate to mechanically connect the electronic computing device to another object. In some cases, the clips are used with electronic computing devices having electronic displays. In such cases, the clips are necessarily provided on a surface of the device other than the surface having the display, since doing otherwise would result in the clip undesirably interfering with the display. Often, the clip is physically integrated with the electronic computing device such that the clip and device form a single unit. Such a unit necessarily has a thicker width than the electronic computing device alone, which is in many cases disadvantageous for marketing purposes.
While today's clips provide a valuable function for portable electronic computing devices, they are deficient in that the real estate used by the clips is underutilized in that the clips are only used to attach electronic computing devices to other objects. Such underutilization is particularly undesirable as technology continues to miniaturize since even the smallest amount of real estate used by a device is often considered burdensome by a consumer.